Abbott Elementary Season 2 Episodes: Ideas From Philadelphia Teachers

Abbott Elementary School is a big hit among teachers in the area and yes, there have been viewing parties.

Below, local educators offer a few topics Abbott creator and native daughter Quinta Brunson might want to consider in season two:

Many people believe that one-size-fits-all policies encourage better behavior and break down social constructs around clothing. Veteran teacher Kristin Luebbert doesn’t believe it.

“Enforcing dress codes falls a lot more on girls and black girls in particular,” she says. If a girl is “a little more voluptuous”, or if she’s tall and her long legs make her skirts look short, “she’ll be called a flapjack in a second”.

Punishing students for “incorrect” clothing or hairstyles reduces teaching time and often labels them as rule breakers. (Some are sent home. Others may have to wear a school t-shirt, like a scarlet letter.)

“I decided a long time ago that my relationships with students would not be marred by clothes and hair,” she says. “It looks like a classroom.”

“There’s nothing worse than teaching in early September or June with no air conditioning in the classroom and 90 degrees outside. Everyone’s sweating, everyone’s smelling and everyone’s unhappy,” says Spanish teacher Jan Cohen, who credits her headmaster with bringing window air conditioners to Kensington Secondary School.

And even when it’s cold outside, it can get very hot inside. “The heater seems to only have two options: on or off,” Cohen says. “It could be January, 45 degrees outside and you’re sweating like a pig.”

When a school is understaffed, the load falls on available staff, which means teachers lose prep time and lunch hours. Sometimes it’s like having two full-time jobs. “People are left, right and center and a lot of teachers – special education, music, gym, health – we are constantly being pulled out of the classroom,” says special education teacher Shayla Amenra.

READ MORE: 5 times ‘Abbott Elementary’ has shed light on Philadelphia’s failing school system — and how teachers think we can fix it | Opinion

Nancy Ironside raised her children in Springfield Township, Montgomery County, and the contrast between extracurricular and educational options between that district and the city is “striking,” she says. “You cross Stenton Avenue and you have all these different options,” she says. “We’ll probably never make it completely fair, this funding isn’t there for city kids to have what suburban kids are getting, but we can certainly try.”

Natalie Pompilio is a Philadelphia-based freelance writer and proud aunt of a freshman CAPA student.